ISS STATUS REPORT #03-60

Submitted by Arthur - N1ORC
International Space Station Status Report #03-60
2 p.m. CST Friday, November 21, 2003
Expedition 8 Crew
The eighth permanent crew to live on the International Space Station
completed its first month aboard the complex this week, a week that saw
the 16 nations that participate in the Station program celebrate the
fifth anniversary of its launch.
The first Station component, the control module Zarya, was launched from
the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on Nov. 20, 1998. Thirty-six launches
later, the Station now has a mass of more than 412,000 pounds and a
interior volume of 15,000 cubic feet, as large as a three-bedroom house.
More than 100 different space travelers from five space agencies and nine
countries have visited the complex.
To assist planners as they evaluate a potential spacewalk early next
year, Expedition 8 Commnader Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander
Kaleri spent the first part of this week working with Russian Orlan
spacesuits. They evaluated how to get into the Soyuz spacecraft docked to
the Station's Pirs compartment while wearing the bulky suits. Such a
procedure could be necessary if they were unable to repressurize Pirs,
which is used as an airlock to begin and end Russian spacewalks, and had
to board the Soyuz.
The potential February spacewalk would exchange samples in exterior
experiments and prepare an aft Station docking port for the European
Space Agency’s Automated Transport Vehicle, a new, uncrewed station cargo
vehicle targeted for launch late next year.
In anticipation of the crew’s first use of the Station’s Canadarm2
robotic arm, Foale spent time Friday going through a computer-guided
refresher on arm operations. Their first use of the arm, a training
session, is planned for early next week.
On Friday, Foale completed alterations to an instrumented suit for use in
next week’s work with the Foot/Ground Reaction Forces During Spaceflight
(FOOT) experiment. The Lower Extremity Monitoring Suit (LEMS), a
customized pair of Lycra cycling shorts outfitted with 20 sensors, will
measure forces on Foale’s feet and joints and gauge his muscle activity
while completing his normal activities in the Station. The experiment's
researchers hope to learn more about the reasons for bone and muscle loss
by astronauts in orbit, insight that may lead to better countermeasures
for astronauts.
Engineers are analyzing the effects of a possible gyroscope failure in
the Station treadmill's vibration isolation system. The analysis began
after the crew reported hearing unusual noises from that system. While
the analysis is under way, the crew has been asked not to use the
treadmill and instead to use a stationary bicycle and other exercise
equipment.
The Expedition 7 crewmembers returned to Houston this week after more
than three weeks of medical checkups and debriefings with Russian
specialists. Commander Yuri Malenchenko and NASA ISS Science Officer Ed
Lu, who completed a 185-day spaceflight with a landing in Kazakhstan in a
Soyuz spacecraft on Oct. 27, will continue their postflight operations
with checkups and debriefings at the Johnson Space Center.
Information on the crew's activities aboard the Space Station, future
launch dates, as well as Station sighting opportunities from anywhere on
the Earth, is available on the Internet at:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/
Details on Station science operations can be found on an Internet site
administered by the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., at:
http://scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/
The next ISS status report will be issued Nov. 28, or sooner if events
warrant.
-end-
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